


one rich man in ten

by leeinthesky



Category: New Amsterdam (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, cute times in the park, helen is a good mom, life lessons with the goodwins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 15:20:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18831328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leeinthesky/pseuds/leeinthesky
Summary: when i was young, i was told i'd findone rich man in ten has a satisfied mindand i'm the onehelen sharpe has never been happier than she is now, sitting in washington square park, reading bad romance novels with her husband and denying her lactose intolerant child an ice cream cone.





	one rich man in ten

**Author's Note:**

> family fluff! who knows how the finale will go tonight and i can already feel the angst, so this is my gift to you guys. and myself. 
> 
> the title is from 'rich man' by vampire weekend, off their new album, which for some reason has been giving me sharpwin feels since i first heard it. i don't own that song or these nerds

‘can i have an ice cream?’

‘not today, baby.’

they’re in washington square park, watching the university students study and play around. it’s that nice kind of day in mid-april where the weather is finally starting to get warm and sunny in the city, and max has been making it a point to get them in the park whenever he can. luna loves it; she’s seven, and at that age where she’s content to run around and play by herself. she can entertain herself for hours, but apparently that’s not what she wants to do today at all. 

‘daddy?’

max looks up at her from his book. ‘luna?’

‘can i have an ice cream?’ luna’s got an absolutely shit-eating grin on her face that she can only have gotten from her father. max’s eyes go from his daughter’s, to the man and his cart of ice cream, to meet helen’s over luna’s head. the same grin grows on his face, and helen can guess what’s coming next as she rolls her eyes.

‘ice cream sounds nice. ask your mother,’ max answers serenely, tugging on one of the girl’s braids. 

luna turns on the quilt so quickly she nearly smacks max in the face with her hair. helen gives max a face that means ‘ha!’ and he takes the opportunity to stick his tongue out at her while their daughter has her back turned. 

‘no,’ helen says gently but firmly. 

_‘mooommm!’_

‘luna george goodwin, you are _lactose intolerant_. ice cream makes you sick, and you know it.’

luna does know it, and the factoid makes her pout. sometimes she pretends to be more upset than she actually is (because she’s cute, and it makes both helen and max more inclined to make her happy), but she really does look put out. helen gives max a truly unimpressed look and tries not to laugh at his returning look of extreme concern with a hint of ‘oh shit, i did that’. thankfully for the sake of their afternoon, luna can be easily distracted. 

‘how was school today, lu? you had show and tell, right?’ helen asks and it’s like flipping a switch. 

‘so cool,’ luna gasps, and her conviction makes max shut his book and helen lean in. ‘i brought in the elephant statue that uncle iggy got me in bangladesh and macie williams brought her signed beyonce shirt and harry got in trouble because he had his dad’s debit card.’ 

the info dump is a lot, but max just smiles. he’s always been the kind of dad who would sit and listen for hours on end. even when luna was a toddler, he’d respond to her baby babble like she was making perfect sense. 

‘wonder how he got that,’ he muses. 

‘he said his dad gave it to him,’ luna says easily. ‘harry’s parents are getting divorced and his dad doesn’t want him to go with his mom, so he’s giving harry tons of toys and things. harry says he thinks his dad is sad but tyler said his dad can’t be sad because his dad is rich.’

helen can’t help the way her eyebrows arch upwards. ‘i’m sorry for harry, but his dad can still be sad no matter his financial status. money doesn’t always make you happy.’ 

‘one rich man in ten,’ max adds, nodding sagely. 

luna looks thoroughly confused by this, but nods along anyways. ‘it’s a song,’ helen explains. ‘what daddy means is that even if you are rich, you have to have other things to make you happy. harry probably makes his parents very happy and neither of them wants to loose him.’

‘that makes sense,’ luna smiles. ‘are you rich, mommy?’

max just barely hides his laugh in a cough. _yes_ , helen has more than enough money of her own, which she donates a good portion of, but _no_ , she is not telling her six year old that she’s rich lest said child run around school telling her friends that her parents are loaded. if there’s anything helen has learned while parenting, it’s that children repeat everything and have zero filter.

‘well, let’s see,’ helen says diplomatically. she pulls luna into her lap and brushes the baby hairs out of her eyes. ‘you can be rich without having a lot of money. i have you, your father, and a job that i love. i have everything i could ever want, so i suppose you could say that i’m rich. and very, very happy, i’m glad to add!’

‘what about you, baby, are you rich? got everything you want?’ max asks luna, tapping her gently on the leg.

they both anticipate what’s coming, but it’s still funny when luna, with all the conviction her little body can muster, says no. ‘i want a strawberry ice cream cone, but i don’t have that,’ she explains. 

‘and if you had an ice cream, you’d be rich?’ 

max is practically reaching for his wallet already, and luna can tell. she vibrates with excitement while she tries not to make grabby hands. ‘i’d be richer than the richest person in the _world_ , dad.’

‘say please and thank you and don’t run,’ helen tries to tell the girl, but the second luna has the money in her hands, she’s gone. 

helen sighs and looks over at max, who is fondly watching luna hold court with a group of very gracious college kids also in line for ice cream. any annoyance she’d felt at him a second ago is gone as she watches him. once he’s satisfied that luna isn’t going to be grabbed by a crazy person, max starts to go back to his abandoned book (some cheesy romance novel, helen teases him horribly but he loves them), but helen grabs his face and kisses him soundly. 

‘thank you,’ she tells him softly. 

‘for what?’ 

helen will never quit enjoying the way max always sounds a little bit dazed after she kisses him. ‘giving me this. all of it.’ she pauses to look over at luna, who catches her eye and waves happily. ‘if you had told me eight years ago that i would have a daughter and- and _you_ , i would’ve said it wasn’t possible,’ helen spills out, suddenly overcome with how different their lives could be. if georgia hadn’t died. if she’d married akash panthaki. if, if, if. 

‘i would’ve,’ max says, full of the same easy confidence and earnestness that he passed on to luna. ‘i always knew we’d end up together. always. even if it took us a while to get there, there was no future for me without you.’

helen is truly about to start crying in the middle of the park. she looks down at her husband, who’s now resting his head on her knee and got his book open again. this max goodwin is not the gaunt man fighting a relentless disease and trying to save everyone but himself that she fell in love with. this max goodwin takes time for himself while still saving everyone he can and spends friday afternoons in washington square reading romance novels and relaxing with her. god, helen loves him so much. 

luna finally runs back, licking melted strawberry from her fingers and whooping gleefully. her enthusiasm is infectious, and helen smiles wide as she uses her thumb to wipe ice cream from luna’s face. 

‘happy?’ 

‘the _happiest_ ,’ luna confirms, and chases a drop of ice cream on her wrist with her tongue.

‘somewhere,’ max starts a little distractedly as he reads, ‘there are twenty seven very miserable rich people.’

luna sits down on their quilt and puts one sticky hand in her dad’s hair. ‘probably on 14th street. apparently the m train is down again.’

max grins into his book and helen laughs as luna looks very proud of herself. it’s a perfect friday afternoon in new york city, and the goodwins of downtown manhattan are lounging in washington square park. later, there will be things to do and worry about, but for now, they are totally relaxed. luna goodwin attacks her ice cream with the kind of messy fervor and enjoyability that only a seven year old can have. max goodwin relaxes into the mindless drama of his drugstore romance novel. helen goodwin-sharpe sits back, enjoys the breeze on her skin, and wonders how in the world she got this lucky.

if only one rich man in ten is truly happy, then helen is absolutely certain that it’s her.

**Author's Note:**

> leave kudos and comments so that i don't overthink the quality of this fic pls! and come yell at me on my tumblr, doctor-sharpe


End file.
